Topic: She Died in Leather

Grem

Date: 2009-02-17 17:51 EST
I flipped open a fresh notebook and readied my pencil. "What kind of photos are we talkin' about?" He didn't say anything, so I raised a brow at him and lifted my gaze from my notebook to peer across at him. "What's goin' on in them?"

He looked uncomfortable, and spent a little time shifting and twisting in his seat. By the time he was done, he didn't look any more comfortable; he just added nervousness to it. "If I wanted people to know about them, I'd just tell the guy to just go screw himself." There wasn't any punch to his words, he just sounded tired.

"Yeah, but he's blackmailin' you." I tapped the eraser of my pencil against my notepad. "So you know he's not exactly the most scrupulous around, yeah?" I watched him, waiting for understanding to dawn. It didn't. People who haven't dealt with this sort of thing sometimes forget the practicalities. Father of a teenage runaway got indignant when I started flipping through her diary for hints, not long ago. Until I pointed out that she pretty much outlined her whole plan there. "I don't know what I'm lookin' for, especially if you're expectin' me not to look at any photos I might get. How do I know I got the real thing?"

There it was. His eyes got wide for a moment, then he frowned. Or, I should say, he frowned deeper - he hadn't stopped frowning since he came in. He turned his head, enough for him to see the door out of my office, and I thought he might bolt. "I... I don't know, Mr. Jameson..."

I could use his money, so I wanted to keep him there, but latching on too tight would just spook him even more. "Unless you're hurtin' someone in these pictures, John, I'm not the sort to judge." His name wasn't John - I'd made a couple of deliveries to his place back when I worked for Crimson Couriers - but I didn't see any need to tell him I knew that. I let him have what anonymity he thought he could get. "But, unless you pay him, someone will find out about whatever you're hidin'. And payin' him isn't any guarantee, especially if he thinks he can milk you for more. Better me than whoever you're afraid of him showin', yeah?"

"What? He gave me his word that if I..." He trailed off and slumped down in his chair, looking defeated. I could actually pinpoint the moment when he remembered he was dealing with a blackmailer, not someone he could trust. End result was that he looked about a foot shorter, a decade older, and a sleepless week more tired. "He gave me one of them. Said he wanted to prove to me that he had them." He reached down and lifted his briefcase to his lap.

While I waited for his shaking fingers to work the combinations, I jotted down some notes, taking account of my assumptions so far. Mostly I was just looking somewhere other than him, hoping it'd help him calm down a bit. I had a pretty good idea of what I was going to be dealing with. He was too quick to forget that criminals aren't honest and straightforward, so I figured this was probably more in the realm of embarrassing than incriminating. I heard his briefcase click open. "Did he tell you how many photos he's got?" I looked up at him after asking the question.

And found myself looking down the barrel of a gun.

Grem

Date: 2009-02-17 23:05 EST
I quirked a brow at him, but otherwise didn't move. Normally, I don't worry too much about that sort of situation, but I don't really have room to move in the closet I call an office. Besides, I'd have to pay the landlord for any damage John did.

"I'm sorry about this, Mr. Jameson. But I need you to swear you won't tell anyone about this." God, his hand was shaking. He really didn't have any idea what he was doing. I didn't even need to notice that the safety was still on to figure that out.

"You've got to be kiddin' me," I muttered under my breath. I met his gaze and shook my head. "If you're worried about your wife findin' out you're cheatin' on her, you should know I've got no reason to tell her. Unless she hires me because she's suspicious of you, but I doubt that'll be happenin'." It was just a guess about what was in the pictures, but I knew I was right when his eyes got wide. It was a good opening, and I took it. He wasn't holding on very tightly, so I was able to pull the gun out of his hand without much effort. I did it just a little bit faster than a normal human could. Figured it might keep him from getting any more stupid ideas. The Wolf had other ideas about how I should have handled the threat, but I'm not a democracy so its vote didn't count.

He just stared at me, and kept holding his hand up like the gun was there. "How did you know about...?" Then he blinked at his hand and dropped it on my desk, sighing.

"Lucky guess. I'm going to hold onto this." I pulled open my desk drawer and dropped the gun in. "You should know that holdin' a gun on someone doesn't do much for gettin' an honest answer. If it scares whoever, they're just going to tell you what they think will keep them from gettin' shot. If it doesn't scare them, you've got a good chance of just makin' them mad." I held out my hand to him. "Photo."

He stared at me some more, then nodded and pulled an envelope out of his briefcase. "I'm really sorry I did that." He was muttering, probably to himself as much as to me, but I nodded to him anyway. "He didn't say how many he has. I thought, you know, they'd all be in the same place, right?" It took him a couple of tries to get the envelope open, and he pulled out a photo and laid it on my desk.

"They might be. Depends on whether he expects a thief." I leaned forward to take a look. It wasn't quite what I'd expected, but it was still proof of infidelity. I wouldn't have enjoyed it, but it looked like he did. I grunted at him. "Not my thing, but like I said, I'm not in a mood to be judgin'." I tapped the edge of the photo, sliding it a bit closer to him. "Now that I know what I'm lookin' for, I guess you should know what I charge." I quoted my rates at him, not mentioning that I was adding a bit to the retainer on account of his stunt with the gun. He nodded, so I asked him some more questions before he put his picture away and, after nervously looking up and down the hall like he expected his wife to be coming around the corner, left.

Grem

Date: 2009-02-18 15:49 EST
The pictures were being held by a man named Anuril. John wasn't too clear about what Anuril did, but he told me where the man's office was, where he figured the photos were. He even helpfully provided me with Anuril's business hours. I guess he expected me to break in at night to steal the shots, but I wanted to talk to the man first. The more I thought about it, the more squirrelly John's behavior was looking.

The building's door opened on a reception area, with a little halfling girl sitting behind the desk. I felt like a giant when I walked over to talk to her. I told her the truth, or at least something close to it: I was a private detective, and my client wanted me to discuss something with Anuril. She nodded once, glanced down at something on the other side of the desk that I couldn't see, then looked up at me and nodded again. The girl directed me to his door, then went back to whatever she was doing when I'd come in. I'd expected to get a run around, but I wasn't going to let her see that.

It was a nice office, all dark wood and leather. And clean - I couldn't smell anything other than what I could see, which was chairs, filing cabinets, bookshelves, a desk, and Anuril himself. He was human, maybe with a little elven heritage to judge by the slightly pointed look of his ears. Average height, slight build, with wavy black hair and a tailored suit. Whatever it was he did, it looked like it paid pretty well. He was standing when I stepped in, and gestured to the chair across the desk from himself.

We sat down and introductions were made. If he was bothered by John hiring a detective to look into the matter, he didn't let it show. Of course, I wasn't entirely straightforward. "My client wants to know what sort of reassurance he's got that, once he pays you off, this whole thing's done. He's worried about you callin' on him once in a while to tell him you found another picture or negative he can buy off you." He wasn't worried about that until I pointed out that it could happen, but it was still something to worry him.

Anuril shook his head and surprised me again. "I don't want him to pay me off." I started staring, and he noticed with a little smile. "Don't get me wrong, I'll take his money with a smile. But I'll be happier to pass out the pictures to anyone who'd be interested. I just need to be practical first, you know." He was entirely too happy to tell me that, and I got the feeling he was lying.

I twitched an eyebrow at him. "That's not going to fill my client with confidence." I paused. "I think you're about the worst blackmailer I've heard of."

He laughed at that. He didn't seem bothered, more like I'd just said something funny while we were chatting over drinks. "Well, I am a novice." He got a bit more serious and shook his head. "But my word is good. He pays, I'll hand over what I have. To him, or to you, if he'd rather do it that way." That's when the good cheer went out of him completely, though. "I do think you should look up Jaqui, though."

He had a sincere expression on his face when he said that last part, which made me want to believe it, even if I didn?t buy his promise. "Who?"

He reached under his desk and I got tense. At least his office was big enough for me to move in if he pulled a piece. He didn't, though. It was just another photo. It didn't look like it was the same set as the one John had, and it was just of the woman, but I recognized her as John's side girl. He laid it on the desk and tapped her face once, then pulled a piece of paper from a little pad and wrote out an address.

I looked down at the picture, then back to Anuril. "You know a lot of details about this." I gestured down at the photo and the spry blond looking out of it. "That's not from the photos you're blackmailin' him with. Makes me wonder where you got it, and those. And how you know where the girl lives."

He took the photo back, looked down at it for a moment, then put it away before looking back to me. "I introduced them, after your client told me what kind of woman he was looking for."

Grem

Date: 2009-02-18 19:19 EST
That answered the question of what Anuril did for a living, too. He was a pimp. Or, rather, he was close to one - the word carries some implications I didn't think were the case with his business. I took a moment to idly wonder if John knew what his pseudonym meant, in that context. Then I asked Anuril a few more questions before I left to check with this Jaqui woman, noting on my way that he had a modern security setup. Wouldn't make it easy to break in later, if I had to.

Jaqui lived in a nicer neighborhood than I thought she would. I flicked my cigarette back at the street before I knocked on the door and waited, listening to movement inside. A woman opened the door with a smile, speaking before she saw me. "Since when do you show up early?" Then she blinked up at me. "Oh. Can I help you?"

She was pretty, with straight dark hair and brown eyes, a little on the thin side. She wasn't the woman in the photo. I gave her a pleasant smile. "Afternoon. I'm lookin' for Jaqui."

She wrinkled her brow at me. "Are you one of her clients? You're not supposed to know where she lives."

I shook my head, and decided that while I could get away with being honest on a case, I may as well do so. "I'm a detective. Workin' on a case, and her boss suggested I talk to her. Not sure why, to be honest."

She frowned. "She's not here. I haven't seen her for a few days, and Anuril knows that. We're supposed to call him after jobs." She looked past me for a moment, then stepped back inside. "Come on in."

It was a nice place, though it could use a cleaning. A winter coat was lying on the floor near the door, and a few magazines were strewn around the couch. I sniffed the air and didn't pick up anything unusual aside from a whiff of marijuana smoke, a few hours old. I turned back to Jaqui's roommate. "She's missing? Wonder why he didn't mention that."

"Probably just wanted to act mysterious." She gave me a little smile. "He's like that. What are you working on that he sent you here?"

I shook my head faintly. "Sorry, not really somethin' I should be discussin'. You know where she was going, last time she left here?"

She eyed me for a second, then shook her head with a shrug. "I don't know. I think she was going to meet a client, but she usually leaves a note." I followed her into the kitchen, where she pointed out a little pad of post-its. "I think she took it with her so she wouldn't forget his address. She does that sometimes."

I looked down at the blank paper, reached out to brush my fingers over it. "You use this since she left?" She shook her head at me, so I dug my pencil out of my pocket and began lightly running it over the top post-it.

"What are you doing?" If she was tall enough, she'd have looked over my shoulder. Instead, she bellied up to the counter next to me.

"Pickin' up some missing persons work without gettin' paid for it, apparently," I muttered. The whole truth was, Anuril didn't seem like a blackmailer, so I was inclined to take my time dealing with him. That, and I was curious. An address and a time started to make itself visible. I tapped it and looked to the girl. "She pushes down when she writes. Mind if I take this?"

She blinked at me, then waved at the pad. "Go ahead. Tell me if you find her?" She seemed worried, so I told her I would and left.

Grem

Date: 2009-02-18 23:39 EST
The place Jaqui had been going when she vanished was in a neighborhood where people mind their own business. It wasn't anywhere near where John lived, but I supposed he might have had a place his wife didn't know about. It would make sense, with how worried he apparently was about her finding out.

By the time I got to the door, I knew what I was going to find inside. The smell wasn't very strong, but enough of it made it outside for me to pick it up. Frowning, I tried the door. It was locked, but I didn't think it was a dead bolt. I pulled on my gloves and fished a small metal card from my pocket and slid it between the door and the frame, sliding it down toward the latch. It took me a moment to get it to catch, but there was a click from inside the knob and the door swung open when I gave it a tug. The smell got stronger, and I could pick up John's scent mixed in with it.

I stepped in and closed the door behind me. There wasn't any movement inside, and John's scent was a couple days old, but I stayed quiet in case someone was hiding in there anyway. I didn't need to bother, but it pays to be careful.

Nothing was amiss in the front room, which was sparsely furnished with a table and a sofa and not much else. I followed the smell past an empty bathroom, then braced myself before pulling open the bedroom door. I found what I'd expected to see. Jaqui was lying on the bed, in the same black leather she'd been wearing when John's photos were taken. There was a pair of handcuffs lying next to her, and her head was lying at an odd angle. She was very dead.

I frowned down at her with a sigh, then turned to look over the room. No surprise, it was the one they'd been photographed in. I wondered how Anuril had gotten the photos, since he'd apparently not known where Jaqui had been, but I found the answer to that soon enough - her purse was on the floor, with a smashed bit of plastic, metal, and glass next to it. A camera, probably one that beamed its pictures somewhere else. Jacqui's killer had broken it hoping to destroy whatever it had gotten, but he'd made a mistake in assuming it was a regular camera.

I pulled out a bandana to tie over my face, to cut the smell a little, then went back to Jaqui's body and crouched down. She looked surprised. There was some bruising on one side of her face, and something about her skin seemed off. Then I realized that her cheekbone was shattered, probably by the same blow that had broken her neck, since I couldn't see any other mark on her. She didn?t seem as ripe as she should have, for how long she?d been there, but I put that down to things not always working like you?d expect in this town. There wasn't anything that looked like it would make a good weapon lying around when I looked, after standing and rubbing my neck.

Of course, I hadn't talked to everyone who might have known about the photos, but so far I only knew of two people. I doubted Anuril had anything to do with this - he hadn't seemed to know Jaqui?s whereabouts, and he wasn't too interested in keeping the photos secret.

I fought down a growl and left to find John. First stop was the house he shared with his wife and elderly mother.

Grem

Date: 2009-02-19 16:44 EST
I played nice when I asked John's mother if he was around, and knowing his real name came in real handy. She assumed I was a buddy of his, and told me he'd had to work late. I played forgetful about the address, and she helpfully reminded me where he worked, so I thanked her and headed out that way. I hung around outside, puffing on cigarettes, until I saw him step out. He didn't see me, and no one came out with him, so I fell into step behind him as he walked to a nearby bar. I caught the door before it swung closed behind him.

"You surprised me, Burton." He jumped so high he almost bounced his head off the door's frame, then spun around to stare at me with wide eyes. I lit another cigarette while he sputtered at me. "Would've been better for you if you'd lost your nerve when I told you I'd have a problem if you were hurtin' anyone in those shots."

He sputtered some more as he took a step back and I followed him in. "I didn't! I mean, I didn't mean to... she..." He blinked, then got himself a little more under control. "...h-how do you know my real name?"

I decided not to bother telling him about my previous career. Instead I pointed at myself and sneered at him. "Detective." Then I grabbed a handful of his shirt and leaned down toward him and spoke through my teeth. "That girl is dead, Burton. Seein' as the outfit and room match, I'm thinkin' it didn't happen too long after that photo was taken. Got somethin' you want to tell me?"

He managed to squirm out of my grip and backed up, shaking his head. "I didn't! I? I didn't mean to kill her!" He was scared enough to be talking a lot louder than he probably intended, and I felt most of the eyes in the place turn his way. He kept walking backwards, stumbling a little once when his leg hit a chair, and I kept following him. "She said she was...and I got..." He jerked his head side to side, looking almost like he was having an epileptic fit. "I just swung. I didn't even think I'd hit her." His voice was getting strained, and I reached out to place a hand on his shoulder.

"Accident or not, you've got to take responsibility for it, Burton. Let's go talk to the watch, and they'll--" I didn't get to finish my sentence. He looked off to one side, and I started to turn to see what he was looking at. I barely had time to register that there was a person there before they clobbered me.

If I'd just been thrown that hard, I could have twisted in the air to control how I hit the wall. As it was, I had just enough thought left in my head to make sure my shoulders hit before the back of my skull. I must have missed the stud, because the wall slowed me down instead of stopping me. I bounced at least once when I hit the ground, but by then I was slightly less coherent than a passed-out drunk.

When I stopped moving, I was lying on my back in the street, under a blanket of pain. Breathing hurt enough for me to be sure I had at least a couple cracked ribs, and I was pretty sure my jaw was broken in more than one place. People began to swim into my vision, mostly folks from the bar. They got out of the way fast, and Burton stepped up to me. I think the hitter was behind him. He looked down at me with an unhappy expression, muttered an apology, and ran off.

I decided that I really should go after him, and whoever had gotten the drop on me and tried to knock my block off, but my body disagreed. When I tried to sit up, I learned that my left arm was currently useless and my left knee hurt even worse if I tried to bend it. I conceded defeat to my body and laid my head back down, passing out.

Grem

Date: 2009-02-21 14:29 EST
I couldn't have been out long, maybe just a few seconds, because the same crowd was standing around blocking traffic by looking at me. Some idiot was crouched down next to me, about to try CPR despite my pulse and breathing. He was reaching for my chin so I put a little growl in it and grunted at him before he could touch me and make my jaw feel even worse, and watched him jump, falling back on his arse.

My left arm and leg were still just as bad as they were before I closed my eyes, so I had to push myself up with my right arm and stick my left leg straight out until I could get my right foot under me. I lurched to the upright and noticed that my ribs didn't seem to hurt quite as much. I ignored that; unless I'm at risk of bleeding out, the order my body goes about fixing me when it's applying its speedy healing is still something of a mystery to me. The crowd kept on with only being useful as a roadblock, but they got out of my way after just a minor glare, and someone helpfully told me I should see a doctor. I nodded to him and hobbled down the street to find a healer.

I'd taken a few people to Tanda to be fixed up, but that was when I was wearing a mask, so she didn't know me from Adam when I limped in. I imagine I looked like I'd been dragged behind a carriage over ten miles of bad road. Then off a cliff. Lucky for me, she wasn't busy and immediately went into fixemup mode when she saw me. I know healing someone of as many bruises and breaks as I was sporting would take a lot out of her, probably make her just this side of useless for the rest of the day, so I held up one hand and shook my head. My jaw didn't like that, so I pointed to it.

She got the message, even if she frowned at me while building up energy between her hands. Her hands felt warm when she touched my chin and cheek, then there was a flash of searing heat and pain that somehow felt like it belonged to someone else, as she used her magics to shove the bones back into place and knit them up. She looked at me, still frowning, and took a step back.

I worked my jaw around, found that she did good work, and smiled at her. "Thanks." I dug into my pocket and pulled out a handful of gold, which I dropped into her palm. "Mind doin' the leg, too?" I hobbled over to a chair and took a seat, left leg pointed out in front of me.

She blinked down at the gold, then looked back at me. "This is at least as much as I would ask for to heal all of your hurts."

"I know." I nodded. "But I don't need you to do them all, and that'll let you take on a little more pro bono work than you already do, yeah?"

She pursed her lips and didn't seem entirely convinced, but the chance to help more that needed it got her to agree. She nodded and looked down at my knee. "I need to be able to touch your skin." I knew that, too, but having taken a blow to the head I was a bit behind the program. My jeans were already sporting a dozen little tears from my trip through the wall, so I pulled the knife from my belt and slit the inside of the leg, letting her peel it away from my skin.

She frowned down at my knee, then gestured her assistant over, a big man who'd been sitting in the corner reading that gossip rag. He came over and, as she placed a hand on my forehead to dull the pain, he slammed my lower leg back into its proper position relative to my thigh. That hurt pretty bad, even with her magic anesthetic, but it faded fast and she was able to fix up any cracked bones and torn ligaments easily enough.

I went to another healer to take care of my arm and ribs. I decided not to worry about the bruises and minor cuts and such. Burton wouldn't be dumb enough to go home after that, so I figured talking to his mother and wife to see if they knew where he'd go could wait a day to let me get some sleep. Besides, it's not like I was going to get paid now anyway, so I wouldn't have anyone complaining about me padding the bill by adding extra time.

Grem

Date: 2009-02-22 12:30 EST
"Mornin', ma'am. Burton's not around, is he?" I was talking to Burton's mother again, a little before noon the next day. I'd already checked at his job and learned that he'd put in for vacation time. His mother shook her head, smiling cheerfully, and told me that something had come over her son and daughter-in-law. They'd suddenly decided the day before to rush off on a second honeymoon. Of course, she didn't know where they were going.

His wife? I'd assumed I'd be getting a chance to talk to her, since I couldn't imagine Burton would take her on the run after his bout of escort-killing. I didn't want to traumatize the old woman until I had everything straightened out, so I lied to her some more. Rubbing my neck and doing my best to look bashful about having to ask, I wondered if I could use the house's bathroom. She happily said I could, stepped out of the doorway and told me where it was.

This sort of thing is when my speed comes in handy. I walked past two bedroom doors on my way, and could smell the scent of Burton, along with a female I assumed was his wife, lingering around one of them. I took a quick look back to make sure I wasn't being watched, and disappeared into that room. I was only there for a few seconds, but I found a couple of interesting things. First, the place was a bit of a mess, both his and her things, which meant they both were hurrying. Second, the photo he'd shown me wasn't very carefully hidden - it was just lying in his desk's drawer, which wasn't locked. I started thinking that his wife knew about his infidelity. The third thing cinched it - under the bed was a sheet of paper torn off of a notebook. She'd used the same trick I'd used on Jaqui's pad.

I hurried into the bathroom, rattling the seat and running some water so Burton's mother didn't find the silence too suspicious. She smiled when she wished me a good day, and I did my best to return the sentiment. I don't know how convincing I was, but I know I wasn't feeling it. Burton hadn't killed the woman. On the other hand, the nature of the situation at least meant there probably wouldn't be any more victims any time soon.

First place I decided to check was the bar I'd been so forcefully removed from. The bartender's eyes looked like they wanted to jump out of his head as I walked in and glanced over at the hastily-erected repairs done to my hole. I threw in a smirk as I looked over the room, then headed over to talk to him. "Don't suppose they're around today?"

I'm not sure what surprised him the most - my relatively good condition, the fact that I came back, or the fact that I was looking for the one who'd made me better appreciate how a baseball feels. Whichever it was, he stared at me for a few seconds, then shook his head. And then, almost comically, he blinked and looked just as shocked as he had when I came in, and pointed toward the door.

Burton had been doing his best mouse impression even before he saw me. When he did, he went through a few changes pretty fast. His eyes got wide and he looked like he might bolt, but then he acted like he was frozen to the spot. After a moment of me looking at him, his shoulders slumped and he studied the floor for a second, then walked over to me. "Mr. Jameson. I'm so sorry about Hattie." It took me a moment to remember that was his wife's name.

"She's who swatted me?" The question was out before I even realized I was speaking. Things fell into place by the time I'd finished asking. Hattie had found out about her husband's extramarital activities, tracked him down, and killed Jaqui. She was a small woman, and I wouldn't have believed it, but this was, after all, Rhy'Din. Burton found out about the photos and hired me - not to hide what he'd been doing from his wife, as I'd assumed, but to protect her when Jaqui's death came to light. Then, after I found out about Jaqui, she socked me to protect him. "Where is she, Burton?"

He nodded to my first question and looked absolutely miserable. He swallowed thickly when I asked the second one and shook his head. "I... I can't tell you that. I'm sorry, but I... I think she'll kill you if you come around."

I showed him my scowl. "She killed that girl. Maybe she didn't mean to, maybe she did." He interrupted me to insist that it had been an accident, and I held up a hand. "Doesn't really matter to me; she needs to step up and accept responsibility either way. Now, either you help me convince her to do that, or I'll look for her on my own. Might take me a while, and maybe I'll never find her. Takes long enough for somethin? to come of this, I doubt I'll be the only one looking for you or her." I stopped, eying him as I rubbed the back of my neck. "Maybe we can get her to give up without too much of a fuss. If not, how long will it be before someone else winds up hurt? Keepin' in mind that a lot of folks around here wouldn't hesitate to shoot first, then talk?" Implying that his wife might be the one to go down if it came to violence again made me feel a little low, but it was the truth and it worked. He agreed to take me to her.

Grem

Date: 2009-02-22 20:38 EST
They'd booked a room at Sleepy's, a little motel run by a dwarf with a sense of humor. I let Burton take the lead hoping that he'd be able to keep his wife calm. She could see me behind him, though, and it didn't work out that well. I smelled something I'd missed at the bar, probably because of all the other smells around - when she saw me and her eyes got round, Hattie was practically dripping with adrenaline. I muttered a word not fit for polite conversation and told Burton to get down. He just turned to look at me, not getting what was about to happen, so I planted a hand on his chest and pushed, hard.

While he stumbled backwards, falling onto the bed when it intersected his legs, Hattie was coming at me. I was ready this time, though, and she wasn't a trained fighter. She was strong, sure, and quicker than most people, but I still outclassed her in the speed department. I didn't want to hurt her, or get her more excited by showing off, so I just made sure I was out of the way of her fists, lifting a hand to pretend I was deflecting her hits a few times.

Burton had figured out why I'd told him to move, and to his credit he wasn't dumb enough to try and get in between us. Instead, he rolled off the other side of the bed and crouched down. His wife was getting frustrated, and turned away from me long enough to pick up the room's heavy metal desk. She didn't throw it at me - instead, she used it like a club. It gave weight to her swings, but it slowed her down enough for me to duck in under it. It didn't seem like she was going to wind down soon, and we didn't need to cause more property damage, so when I got a chance I gave her a quick jab to the soft spot just under her breast bone. It wasn't hard enough to completely knock the wind out of her, so I hit her again as she was taking a breath, then got out of the way of the falling desk.

Hattie sat down hard on the bed, gasping for air, and her husband appeared at her side, putting his arm around her shoulders. He was whispering in her ear, asking her if she was alright, and kept on asking even after she started nodding. He'd been cheating on her, but it was obvious that he still cared about her. I leaned against the battered desk and waited a bit before I started in on her.

"Sorry I had to do that, but you weren't givin' me much in the way of a choice." She looked up at me and I saw the muscles in her jaw twitch before she nodded. "Now, I'm thinkin' things'll go a lot better for you if you turn yourself in. Either that, or I take you in. Can't just pretend Jaqui's still alive." I said the last part quietly. Hattie looked like she was going to argue, but after some more whispering from Burton she gave up. I believed them when they said it was an accident - apparently, she'd never had cause to find out how strong she got when her off-kilter adrenal gland was pumping - and told that to the watch when I went with the pair. From Burton, I got gratitude and what seemed like a genuine apology, but no payment since he was going to sink what money he could spare into trying to get his wife as light a punishment as possible. I couldn't really blame him. After I was done there, I dropped off a note for Anuril, telling him about what I'd found and asking him to get word to Jaqui's roommate.

When I got to my office the next day, there was a pouch in my little mail box. Turned out I was getting paid after all - I opened the pouch and saw the glint of platinum under a note that just read, "Thanks. -A."